Yeah, I was talking about the vehicle that goes off a cliff in Raiders... Those are German All Terrain Vehicles. They seriously don't have much of a name beyond that. Kubels are completely different vehilces made by Volkswagen... The ones in Raiders were real. I call them Staff Cars because of a use they saw often due to their more spacious designs, but they were used for just about everything, like Raiders.

We haven't seen the Indy line at retail yet, and already interest is focussing beyond your initial offerings - specifically on vehicles. The 'Last Crusade Tank' and 'Raider's Flying Wing' - are these something you've considered producing? (TPU.co.uk, 04/04/08)

We are indeed considering the Flying Wing for the vehicle line and are looking at whether it can be done in our $19.99 assortment (if we did it, it would be in '09 at the earliest). However, the Tank is just too big to do in our $19.99 vehicle line. As we don't have another, higher priced assortment in the IJ line, this one will have to be a "wait and see" based on the response to the IJ line, and possibly tied to future movies if we can't get it done for this one. The entire IJ line will have a shelf-date of 5/1.

Now, I'm not a hardcore vehicle scale guy, but I'd figure the tank would be easier to do for $20 than the Flying Wing would.

But what I found most curious was the "possibly tied to future movies" part. Did they just subconsciously let it slip that there may be more Indy flicks in the works?

Originally I was thinking that it was odd on another level: any future movies would be sequels, set after IV, so there'd be no reason we'd see Nazi tanks. Unless they're planning on just redecoing the toy as a Soviet tank and trying to pass it off that way. Then I thought they might be looking at more Young Indy stories that would potentially feature Nazis.

But then I realized it probably just meant utilizing a new movie launch to release some items tied to the previous episodes.

I really hate the way modern assortments work. So you can't make the tank for 19.99...Make it 29.99! Make it 39.99! It it really that complicated? Does it really need an assortment? Back in the vinatge Kenner days, it seemed that every toy cost what it cost.

I'm gonna go on a limb and guess that the reasons they'd consider the wing over the tank are these...

-The flying wing can be scaled down easier to fit the $20 assortment because it's essentially one shape you just need to make smaller. Not much to it then.

-The tank's a more complex vehicle in design than the plane... More possible moving parts and things, more overall "detail" you'd need to add to it perhaps.

I'm just guessing on those things, but they seem feasible to me.

As far as the tank goes though, it's not really accurate to call it a "Nazi" tank since it was actually given to the Germans in TLC by the host country they were in (in exchange for a RR Phantom?). Also, the tank is actually modeled after a "German Mk.7" tank from World War I, though Mk.7's were British tanks repainted by the Germans.

Either way, the tank's actually from a whole other era completely...

Personally I think the tank makes more sense in the $20 scale because it is indeed smaller and it's more action-oriented what with the fist-fight on it, but Hasbro's mentioned somewhere in the past how they need to feasibly scale-down a ship or whatever so it looks believable, but fits the pricepoint... Maybe that's playing into this?

The AT-AP is much more comical looking compared to a fighter for instance... The tiny hatches and things really make it look silly to me by comparison. Maybe that's a reasoning for this?

Either way, I agree with speedermike completely... Why not just release a $30 assortment with some of the larger vehicles?

As always the scale would be important to me, but hey at least it'd get the things out there to people who want them.

I think the flying wing will look odd myself since Indy and the German thug fight under it, but whatever.